SAN JOSE — Outraged by allegations of racial harassment at San Jose State, civil rights activists called Saturday for prosecutors to bring felony charges instead of the misdemeanor counts of hate crime and battery that were filed last week against four white students accused of abusing a black student who lived in their dorm.

"This is not misdemeanor behavior. This is not spur-of-the-moment. This was premeditated terrorism," said Rick Callender, a vice president of the California/Hawaii state conference of the NAACP, a leading civil rights group.

Local and regional NAACP officials are planning a news conference at the SJSU campus Monday, which will also be attended by campus President Mo Qayoumi. Callender said the civil rights activists will call on prosecutors to bolster the charges filed last week against the four students to include felony hate crimes and false imprisonment.

The activists also will urge Qayoumi to conduct a "thorough investigation" into the university housing department's handling of the situation, aimed at explaining why administrators apparently did not take stronger action after residential assistants saw a Confederate flag in a dorm window.

University officials have already promised a full investigation of the case, in which the white students are accused of repeatedly bullying their freshman dorm-mate by taunting him with racial slurs, clamping a bicycle lock around his neck and barricading him inside his bedroom in the suite they shared. The four students — which includes Colin Warren, 18, of Woodacre — have been suspended.

News of the charges last week prompted a protest march on campus, ending at the landmark statue commemorating Olympic athletes and activists Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Some of those attending criticized Qayoumi for not attending that protest, which occurred while he was at a meeting in Wisconsin.

Qayoumi has deplored the alleged abuse in a statement he sent universitywide on Thursday. It could not be learned what Qayoumi will say Monday, but Callender said the president appears sincere about examining what happened.

Activists have a sharper disagreement with the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, which filed misdemeanor hate crime and battery charges last week against Joseph Bomgardner, 19; Logan Beaschler and Warren, both 18; and a fourth student who is under 18. Warren previously attended Tamiscal High School in Larkspur.

Under state law, hate crimes may be charged as misdemeanors, which carry a maximum sentence of one year in jail, or felonies — which can bring longer terms in prison. In deciding how to charge, authorities said they consider such factors as the sophistication of the crime, the previous criminal records of the accused, the severity of their actions and the sentence a judge is likely to impose.

In a statement on Saturday, District Attorney Jeff Rosen did not detail those deliberations but said he believes his office has filed "the appropriate charges in this case, based upon the evidence."